Annual Report 2020 “We Have Received Improved Seeds, Which I Have Grown on a Half-Acre
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Annual Report 2020 “We have received improved seeds, which I have grown on a half-acre. The yields are very high, and this makes me very happy. I will grow these seeds again.” Grameen Farm Development Plan beneficiary, Brong-Ahafo, Ghana Table of Contents Message from President and Chair of Board: Detours do not change our destination. 4 The Grameen Model: Amplifying the power of the poor. 7 Where We Work. 9 Responding to a Crisis: COVID-19 RELIEF program targets 3,500 vulnerable female micro-entrepreneurs. 11 Emergency Cash for most vulnerable women. 12 From Ebola to COVID-19: Arming frontline workers with truth. 15 Grameen by the Numbers. 18 Financial Inclusion: As Agent Network grows, Mittras become ‘essential.’ 20 WomenLink II catalyzes economic empowerment. 21 Digital Farming: Programs pivot to ensure farmers don’t lose ground. 23 Refugee Finance Solutions: Helping families rebuild lives in Uganda. 26 Digital Literacy Training Guide helps refugees access financial services. 27 WAGE: Reducing barriers to women’s empowerment. 28 Strengthening Ecosystems. 30 A Look Ahead: Focus on India. 31 Our Partners: They light our way. 32 Consolidated Statement of Activities. 33 Grameen Foundation Leadership. 35 Bankers without Borders: A shout out to skillanthropists. 36 To Our Supporters: With your help, we can do more. 37 About Grameen. 38 Grameen Foundation Annual Report 2020 3 CEO and Board Chair Letter Detours do not change our destination. Last year, our Annual Report letter concluded with: “We enter FY 2020 more inspired than ever and confident that we have created a roadmap to achieve limitless milestones ahead.” Never could we have foreseen the detour that was 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic rounded the globe, Grameen Foundation, like so many others, encountered unimaginable twists and turns on the journey to fulfill our mission. Here’s the thing about detours: They change your route, not your destination. With the United Nations forecasting the virus would cause the ranks of the poor to swell by between 240 and 490 million, we needed to be more intrepid in our trek than ever. The way forward was to change direction and work off map. Grameen Foundation is not traditionally a relief organization. Our work developing and delivering digital tools and strengthening women’s and families’ ecosystems is designed to help them thrive. With the advent of COVID-19, we also needed to also help the most vulnerable survive. Thanks to our extraordinary staff and partner organizations, we quickly launched emergency relief that provided cash or grocery and pharmaceutical goods to more than 10,000 at-risk beneficiaries in India, Uganda, and the Philippines. It is no small task to develop digital tools nd deploy new technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrency to identify beneficiaries, transfer funds, and monitor for fraud in a way that is safe, efficient, and transparent. And all in just a few short months. Concurrent to these vital efforts, we worked to ensure existing programs stayed on track, and that our beneficiaries and staff stayed safe. In Ghana and Tanzania, for instance, we rapidly transitioned from face-to-face engagement with farmers to digital communication via SMS (text) and community radio, delivering messages to support farmers during and after the COVID emergency. In India, we were able to leverage our network of Community Agents, called Mittras, who were already on the ground in the poorest communities. The Mittras went to extraordinary lengths to ensure their neighbors could access funds — many for the first time – when lockdowns prevented travel to distant banks. In making certain their neighbors were not deprived of food and medicine, Mittras also introduced them to digital financial tools that can change the course of their lives. continued on next page Grameen Foundation Annual Report 2020 4 CEO and Board Chair Letter Which raises another point about detours: When you are forced to take previously untraveled roads, you may see things you never have before. COVID-19 caused the world to detour. As governments around the globe scrambled to respond to the pandemic, they saw that digital access would be critical to their relief and recovery efforts, and they began knocking down barriers to expand digitization to the poor. They realized at new levels what Grameen Foundation has always known. Without digital access, entire populations in developing countries are cut off from the opportunity to establish online identities, save and borrow money, receive aid, reach markets with their crops and wares, and so much more. The United Nations forecasts the coronavirus may set back global anti-poverty progress 30 years. We will be navigating the dark roads of this pandemic for some time. But if we are joined on the journey by governments, partner organizations, and donors who believe financial access delivered through digital technologies is one of our most promising paths to ending poverty, there will be light along our way. Steve Hollingworth, President and CEO Peter Cowhey, Chair, Board of Directors “ When you are forced to take previously untraveled roads, you may see things you never have before. COVID-19 caused the world to detour. ” Grameen Foundation Annual Report 2020 5 “I am happy that I got an opportunity to earn and help my family. From this income I will also pay my children’s fees, and help my family.” Grameen Mittra, Nagpur District, India The Grameen Model Amplifying the power of the poor. The Grameen Foundation Model makes sophisticated use of digital data to connect the world’s poor to resources and information that allow them to make informed decisions that put food on the table, money in the bank, and joy in their lives. The model is successful regardless of access to Internet or the ability to read because it deploys digitally-enabled Community Agents to bridge that gap, connecting all the poor to the same services and supports. Our comprehensive solution set. Digital Financial Services Community Agents Digital Farming DFS gives women a better way to Digitally-enabled agents connect High-tech farming supports mange their money. their communities to Mobile Money give farmers a better way to and Digital Farming solutions. grow crop income. Two-way, real time digital information flow. Delivered person-to-person. Community Agents Digital Farming Digitally-enabled agents High-tech farming supports connect their communities for smallholder farmers to grow to information, tools, and crop income with geo-targeted, resources that change lives. market-connected information. Fight poverty with data Community lift Data-rich solutions converted to A single agent can low-tech or no-tech applications, support 150 –1,000 eliminating need for Internet access. people, their families, Digital Financial Services neighbors, suppliers, DFS for poor women to save, borrow, and buyers. make payments, get insurance, and access health financing. Grameen Foundation Annual Report 2020 7 “I am so happy that I will be able to provide banking services at doorsteps to the villagers. I feel proud that I am different from the other ladies.” Grameen Mittra, Bhiwapur Block, India Where We Work Grameen works in countries across the globe, focusing on large rural populations where disparities in wealth and gender inequality marginalize many. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., and with regional offices in the U.S., Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Grameen builds partnerships and programs in neighboring countries to connect poor communities, particularly women, to a range of financial, farming, and health services. LATIN AMERICA SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA ASIA Bolivia Bénin Nigeria Egypt Sudan Cambodia Colombia Burkina Faso Rwanda Jordan Syria India Ecuador Eswatini Senegal Lebanon Tunisia Indonesia El Salvador Ghana Sierra Leone Morocco Turkey Myanmar Guatemala Kenya South Africa Palestine Yemen Philippines Haiti Mali Tanzania Timor-Leste Honduras Madagascar Togo Vietnam Mexico Niger Uganda Peru Each Community Agent Each Community Agent directly empowers indirectly impacts 150 750 clients on average people on average Grameen Foundation Annual Report 2020 9 “We were shocked and scared of the community quarantine... we were scared we would die of hunger.” Grameen COVID-19 RELIEF beneficiary, Cebu City, Philippines COVID-19 Response COVID-19 program targets 3,500 vulnerable female micro-entrepreneurs. Soledad Regis is a 72-year-old widower in Muntinlupa City, Philippines. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Soledad was a micro-entrepreneur who helped support her family by selling packed meals to offices. She also worked in a small canteen. When pandemic lockdowns were instituted, Soledad and all the members of her household lost their sources of income. “We were shocked and scared of the community quarantine… we were scared that we would die of hunger,” said Soledad. Then Soledad learned she had been chosen as a beneficiary of Grameen Foundation’s COVID-19 RELIEF (Response to Enhance Livelihoods of Individual Entrepreneurs and Families.) Supported by J.P. Morgan, the program was designed to provide relief assistance and long- term recovery support to 3,500 targeted Filipino micro-entrepreneurs, especially women, who were hard hit by the pandemic. “We were so happy when we received a call about the relief assistance. The assistance was really a big help to us,” Soledad said. In Phase I of the program, Grameen In Phase II of the program, Grameen worked with our microfinance institution Foundation supported our MFI and financial tech partners to provide (microfinance institution) partners in non-cash relief assistance in the form equipping entrepreneurs with strategies to of vouchers for food and medicine, cope and respond to the COVID-19 crisis as well as COVID-19 crisis-related both professionally and in their personal financial advice sent through SMS (text lives. Drawing on our Resilient Life, messages). Beneficiaries with basic- Resilient Business (RLB) curriculum, we feature phones received SMS vouchers.